Why did Set Adrift On Memory Bliss disappear from the album on iTunes?

April 19, 2017 3:31 PM

P.M. Dawn's 1991 hit Set Adrift On Memory Bliss was song 9 on their album Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross: The Utopian Experience. This song is missing from the album on iTunes - it skips from song 8 to song 10. Anyone know why?
posted by Dragonness to Media & Arts (11 answers total)

hard to say but it looks like it's been that way for at least two years.
posted by noloveforned at 3:43 PM on April 19, 2017

Probably a mistake. I found that ELO's best-of collection All Over The World on Google Play Music was missing, of all things, the title track. Other services have the track on that album, so I don't think it's any kind of licensing restriction. I'd report it and see if that helps. (I should report the ELO glitch to Google too, come to think of it.)
posted by kindall at 3:53 PM on April 19, 2017

Response by poster: Why did I assume something sinister? I've submitted a request for it to iTunes, thanks for that suggestion.
posted by Dragonness at 4:17 PM on April 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

I can't find any confirmatory evidence, but I suspect it has to do with sampling rights, or maybe estate issues. The original version isn't on Amazon either.
posted by monopas at 4:19 PM on April 19, 2017 [2 favorites]

It's not on that album on Spotify, either.
posted by zsazsa at 4:24 PM on April 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

Massive sample of Spandau Ballet's True in that song, so that could be it. Gary Kemp got a writing credit but there have been frictions in the Spandau camp at times IIRC, so that might well be the issue. That or the 'Ashley's Roachclip' sample.
posted by Chairboy at 5:22 PM on April 19, 2017 [4 favorites]

It's also missing from The Best of P.M. Dawn, where it should be track #1 (the tracklist goes straight to #2), and Amazon only has the CD listed currently at exorbitant prices from 3rd party sellers, but it's still included on eMusic (for now ;)). [eMusic is an old, legitimate MP3 seller, often forgotten beside iTunes and Amazon.]
posted by filthy light thief at 8:13 PM on April 19, 2017

Response by poster: The odd thing is that the original Set Adrift On Memory Bliss is still available on iTunes as part of the soundtrack of Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. From the looks of it, that is a mistake and it should have been "disappeared" from that album as well.
posted by Dragonness at 8:41 PM on April 19, 2017

I have been looking for this song for years on both iTunes and Amazon and have never found it. It's been a minimum of five years where I will periodically check whenever I think about it, but it's probably been closer to 10 (I guess ever since I've been using a smartphone for music rather than an iPod).

I think I actually do have the original version on my old iPod somewhere, which indicates to me that it may have been available on iTunes at some point a long time ago (I got my first ipod in...2003? 2004 maybe?)
posted by triggerfinger at 9:10 PM on April 19, 2017

Best answer: This is in no way an "official" answer, but I think one need not look too far.

P.M. Dawn's Prince Be (the mastermind and principal songwriter, arranger, vocalist, and performer of their entire "legitimate" catalogue) was, for years before his passing, incapacitated and unable to perform and record due to a stroke and complications from diabetes.

Doc G, the Attrell brothers' first cousin, effectively took over the name back in 2009 and set out releasing phenomenally shitty music (including both originals and dreadful remakes of PMD classics) under the P.M. Dawn brand. Along those lines, he re-recorded "Set Adrift" in 2013 and began hawking his insulting, weak-ass version of the song to every crappy, MS Paint-designed '90s compilation in the known universe.

I don't know what may have specifically changed in the rights arrangement for the P.M. Dawn catalogue under Universal Music Group (current rights administrators for Gee Street/Island Records), but it does indeed appear that Doc G has found a way to have all traces of that song pulled from the digital universe. ("Set Adrift" has to be the biggest cash cow in the P.M. Dawn universe, though, so I'm kinda shocked he found a way to do so.) Presumably any remaining "accidental" appearances of the original have to do with licensing terms negotiated at the time of release.

Again, though, just a guess.
posted by mykescipark at 12:35 AM on April 20, 2017 [10 favorites]

Response by poster: Thank you, that's in line with what I suspected but amazingly there's nothing in all of internet about it. Until now.
posted by Dragonness at 6:32 AM on April 20, 2017